The Canadian thread piqued my interest in dish wands and now that I have one, well, it’s great. As for the name, it seems an obvious reference to magic and evidently the idea of a magic wand has been around a long time.

From online etymology: “Magic wand is attested from c.1400 and shows the etymological sense of “suppleness” already had been lost.”

I did some wild card searching for * wand, and every wand reference I found was, like the dish wand, playing off the magic idea.

I’m curious if it is possible to know how long it took for magical to become an inherent property of wands, once the association was originally made.

Looking at the OED entry, it seems as if many of the senses of wand disappear by the seventeenth century. There are some exceptions: the use of the word to denote a symbol of office continues, as do citations from Scotland and the north of England, plus some scattered citations that appear later. But by the eighteenth century, magic wand, for the most part, seems to be the only one left standing.

I believe dowsers sometimes use a willow wand; and I think the Dutch at one time used bundles of these (osiers) for land reclamation. But I agree: most of the senses of “wand”, other than the magic one, have fallen into disuse. More’s the pity: it’s a lovely word. It comes to mind every time I see an orchestra conductor wielding what we rather anachronistically call a “baton”. “Wand” seems to me much more appropriate; it must be a very long time since band leaders (other than drum-majors, etc.) put away those potentially death-dealing weapons. Does anyone know just how long a time?